6 die in fire at eastern North Carolina home

GARLAND, N.C. (AP) — A fire swept through a mobile home in eastern North Carolina early Saturday, killing six people, authorities said.

Five bodies were found in the rubble of the home immediately after the fire was put out around 1 a.m. Saturday, and a sixth victim was found a few hours later, Sampson County Sheriff’s Capt. Eric Pope said.

No one escaped the blaze, Pope said.

Deputies and the Sampson County Fire Marshal’s Office are investigating. There was no immediate evidence the blaze was intentionally set, Pope said in a news release.

“Investigators are still processing the evidence as a crime until the cause of the fire can be determined and autopsies are complete,” Pope said.

The names of the victims were not released, and Pope said it could be a couple of days before the medical examiner confirms their identities.

The mobile home was in Garland, a town of about 600 people about 75 miles south of Raleigh.

Neighbors say the mobile home was on property that had been in the same family for six decades. They said the victims included a mother and her boyfriend, her son, her son’s girlfriend and the girlfriend’s two school-age children.

Joyce Miles saw the fire and tried to help the people get out, but it was too intense and she didn’t hear anyone inside the home. She cried as she talked about how good her neighbors were and how sad she was that she could do nothing to help.

“It just hurts me. Six people. And nobody made it out,” Miles told the newspaper. “Those people in there were able-bodied people. They could have gotten out.”